C# – Scope of static variables in ASP.NET sites

asp.netcnet

If running multiple ASP.NET applications in the same application pool, how many instances will I have of a class' static variable?

One per application pool?
One per application pool worker process?
One per application?
Something else?

Just to give some context:

I'm thinking specifically of a ServiceLocator implementation we have that holds a UnityContainer in a static class variable. The question is, will multiple apps registering a container on the ServiceLocator interfere with one another?

The apps are running in IIS 7.5 on .NET 4.0, should that make any difference.

Example code (simplified)

public static class ServiceLocator
    {
        private static IUnityContainer _container;

        public static void Initialize(IUnityContainer container)
        {
            if (_container != null)
            {
                throw new ApplicationException("Initialize should only be called once!");
            }
            _container = container;
        }

    }

If i run this from two different web applications which run in the same application pool, , typically in Application_Start, will it throw an exception on the second invocation? Will it always throw an exception? Will it never throw an exception? Will it throw an exception in some configurations?

UPDATE: I know there will be one instance of the static variable per application domain. So, the question could be rephrased to "If running multiple ASP.NET applications in the same application pool, how many App Domains will I have?"

I've been looking a lot around, but haven't found any authoritative references on this. Any help is appreciated, preferably with references to official Microsoft documentation.

Best Answer

If running multiple ASP.NET applications in the same application pool, how many App Domains will I have?

Each application pool can have multiple worker processes, each worker process will run different application instances. Each instance of an application has a separate AppDomain - so the answer to your original question is one per application instance.

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(
    x => x.YourEnumField,
    "Select My Type", 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList("MyType", 
   EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) , 
   "Select My Type", 
   new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune's answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common
{
    public static class MyExtensions{
        public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
            where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
        {
            var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };
            return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
        }
    }
}

This allows you to write:

ViewData["taskStatus"] = task.Status.ToSelectList();

by using MyApp.Common

.net – ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application

Website:

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into the code yet. Another problem can be in publishing.

If Visual Studio isn't told to re-use the same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the DLL files generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close copies of DLL files containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of errors. The Web Site project was introduced with Visual Studio 2005, but it has turned out not to be popular.

Web Application:

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part of SP 1 for Visual Studio 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project was designed to work similarly to the Web projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2003. It will compile the application into a single DLL file at build time. To update the project, it must be recompiled and the DLL file published for changes to occur.

Another nice feature of the Web Application project is it's much easier to exclude files from the project view. In the Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an excluded keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without renaming them, making things much tidier.

Reference

The article ASP.NET 2.0 - Web Site vs Web Application project also gives reasons on why to use one and not the other. Here is an excerpt of it:

You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use the Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use the Web Site project.

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project.

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project.

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects (MSDN) explains the differences between the web site and web application projects. Also, it discusses the configuration to be made in Visual Studio.